Body parts found in Warren sewer from different woman than those found in Sterling Heights sewer

Two fleshy body parts found in a Warren sewer in December were from an unidentified female but not the same woman whose partial remains were found in a Sterling Heights sewer line last summer, police said Friday.

A DNA analysis of the two pieces found by sewer contractors on Dec. 20 near 10 Mile and Schoenherr roads determined they were from a white woman, Warren Police Commissioner Jere Green said.

However, officials do not know her identity.

“There are no legal or justifiable reasons why these parts end up in the drain,” Green said.

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“We are investigating this as a homicide until the evidence takes us in a different direction.”

The two pieces -– measuring approximately 4-by-4 inches and 1 1/2 inches thick – were slightly decomposed and included no bones or organs.

After the discovery of the parts on a metal platform used by a private contractor working inside the massive Oakland Macomb Interceptor sanitary line about 85 feet below ground, the pieces were sent to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification/Department of Forensic and Investigative Genetics.

The gruesome find eerily matches the discovery of body parts last summer.

On Aug. 15, employees of Inland Waters made a similar gruesome discovery in the sewer under 15 Mile Road at Maple Lane in Sterling Heights. Ten fleshy parts approximately the size of a softball had snagged on a platform used by workers about 60 feet beneath the road.

Based on the lack of decomposition, Sterling Heights police initially believed the parts were placed in the sewer system less than 24 hours earlier. Following an autopsy, police said those 10 fleshy parts belonged to a heavy-set white woman but the age of the person was unknown.

Some of the parts found in Sterling Heights had portions of a tattoo. Police released photographs of the design, hoping that someone might recognize it and provide useful information to investigators. A couple of tattoo artists told investigators they believed the tattoo is approximately 15 years old, based on the fading and definition of the design. That woman’s identity also remains unknown.

Investigators also don’t know the location where the body parts were placed into the sewer system.

“It’s an unusual case,” Green said. “There is no investigative blueprint how to solve this.”

A check of DNA databases maintained by the FBI did not pick up a match of the DNA of the body parts found in the two cities. Current missing persons reports also have provided no clues.

The lack of identification of the two women has left investigators baffled.

Officials are asking that anyone who may have information about either woman to call the Warren Police Department at 586-574-4877.

“All we need is a phone call to tell us who one of these women is, and then we can backtrack from there,” Detective Cpl. Mel Nearing said.

Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Anthony Marrocco said the discovery of body parts was the first incident he has heard of in his 20 years in that office.

Ranging in diameter from 9 1/2 to nearly 13 feet in diameter, the Oakland Macomb Interceptor starts at 24 Mile and Dequindre roads in Rochester Hills and flows through Shelby Township, Sterling Heights and Warren before reaching a pumping station near Eight Mile and Hoover Road in Detroit.

The Oakland Macomb Interceptor starts in Oakland County at two locations: South Boulevard at Dequindre in Troy, and at Avon Road near Dequindre, southeast of Rochester. Both arms tie into the main Interceptor around M-59 and the Clinton River. It then runs southeast, roughly along the river to Dodge Park Road at Utica Road then goes south under Dodge Park Road to 15 Mile Road, east to the ITC corridor, then south to the Northeast Pump Station just south of Eight Mile Road.